IBM offers concessions in EU antitrust probe

IBM has offered to provide resources to mainframe support rivals in order to put an end to a European Commission antitrust investigation into its business practices.

The company has committed to supplying spare parts and other technical information on "reasonable and non-discriminatory" terms to third-party maintainers, the Commission said today. IBM has proposed the offer would last five years.

"These commitments aim to resolve concerns that IBM may have imposed unreasonable conditions for supplying competing mainframe maintenance service providers with such inputs, in breach of European Union antitrust rules prohibiting the abuse of a dominant market position in Europe," the commission said in a statement.